The Unfettered Pursuit of Happiness

March 19, 2014

The Full-Time Job of Retirement Travel

(Photo Detail: Hayman Island, Australia)

One of the things I looked forward to when I retired was the chance to travel more frequently, and for longer stretches of time. Home-exchange has turned out to be a great way to stretch the length of our trips without straining our travel budget. But the big advantage of retirement is being able to get out of town whenever opportunity knocks.

And opportunity to travel with friends has knocked many times over the last six years of our retirement. I can only think of two or three times during my working years that we were able to coordinate a vacation with our other working friends. But now we can be flexible and spontaneous, so we’ll say yes(!) to just about any adventure our friends want to share with us.

This year we said yes again to some friends that invited us to join them in Thailand to celebrate their birthdays. They’ve invited several of their friends and family members to join them at an enchanting villa on the island of Koh Samui, followed by a few nights in the excotic city of Bangkok.

Our journey to get to this part of the world will take us 23 hours--not counting layovers. The longest flight we’ve ever taken was our 14-hour flight to Sydney, Australia a couple of years ago--in coach. Neither of us could sleep sitting upright on that flight, even with those funny little neck pillows, so we had a really hard time with jet lag when we arrived. We spent four nights in Sydney and only made it out to dinner once. The other three nights we “took a little nap” at 4pm and didn’t wake up until the next morning!

So the last several months we’ve been working all the mileage deals, and were finally able to book free business-class tickets for this journey. Free! We’re hoping the lie-flat seats will help get us started on better footing this time. I really want to enjoy dinner every night in this part of the culinary world.

In any case, 23 hours is an awful long time to fly somewhere for only a week-long trip. So we’re starting with a side-trip to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, where we will be meeting up with some new friends that we haven’t even met yet, at least not in person.

I know a lot of people don’t really like Facebook, but this is one of those things I love about it. The tour group we are traveling with on the first part of our trip sent us a list of fellow travelers last week. We’ll be joined by folks from as far away as Switzerland and Brazil, to as close as Arizona and get this--the town three highway exits away from us here in the Bay Area. And through the miracle of modern social technology, this couple was able to not only see that we have a friend in common, they were able to introduce themselves to us through Facebook. We’re going to get together before the trip to share our excitement and exchange some travel stories.

Anyway, I know I don’t need to give you excuses for having been away from my blog for so long. But honestly, planning this trip has been a full-time job. Between working out all the deals to get free flights, to getting the proper immunizations and travel visas, booking hotels, and studying up on the culture and history—well blogging has taken a backseat for sure.

I’d love to get back to a more steady blogging stride, but first, we’re headed on another trip that we were able to say yes to: a short cruise to Mexico with Doug’s family.

Comments

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Yep, that is indeed what retirement is all about! And I hope you enjoy SE Asia as much as we did. The people are warm and welcoming, Buddism is fabulously fascinating, and the wildlife is quite unlike what we have here. Yes, there are issues, but they don't diminish the positive, they just are what they are.

Over here I feel like the longer we are in early retired, the faster we go. So no apologies for shirking your blog are necessary . . . it's called living your life.

Wow, you make me feel like an old stick-in-the-mud. Well, actually I AM an old stick-in-the-mud. Mostly, I go to places where I don't have to fly -- because I hate to fly -- and to places where they speak English -- because I don't speak another language and I always want to know what they're saying behind my back. But then again, I've found you can have lots of different, enjoyable, educational, and otherwise rewarding experiences even if you rarely venture more than a couple of hundred miles from home.

Maybe you have discussed earlier in your blog but you don't seem to be living on to limited of a budget. Even with the "free flight" this time, you sure have traveled a ton. Have you ever discussed in your blog what your annual living expenses are? Some of these early retirees live on very little but this doesn't seem to be you. Plus you live in the Bay Area so did you retire with a quite sizable nest egg? (If I may ask)

Tamara: I have a few unusual questions about travel to SE Asia--I'll email you off-line.

Tom: I have to say, going to non-English speaking countries where I speak a little (Italian, Spanish, French) stresses me out more. Then I feel obligated to brush up, and every conversation is loaded with performance anxiety. Since there's no chance I'll learn the many languages of this trip, I just have to wing it--the pressure is off, and it feels even easier!

Having said that, there is SO much of the U.S I still want to explore--lots of rewarding experiences waiting in my own "backyard"--yes! And I speak the same language, well mostly.

Mark: Well, I don't know any retirees, even those with large nest eggs, that don't live on a limited budget! I do have a fixed budget, and if you've read my old posts about how much you need-- I retired with 33-times my total annual expected budget the year I retired. So, whatever you want to use for travel, you'll need 33 times that amount in your nest egg if you want to keep spending that amount (adjusted for inflation) each year. (Well, for a young retiree--25 times for "normal" retirement age.)

Having said that, some years, we have other unexpected expenses, so we cut back on the travel. Other years, we're under budget in other areas so we can spend more. But with home-exchange and mileage programs, it's amazing how cheaply we can travel--leaves money in the budget for the occasional splurge. We VERY rarely pay for an airline ticket--we have a mileage credit card that we charge EVERYTHING on, and also take advantage of every deal we can to earn more miles--opening brokerage accounts, moving money around, using the right card for double miles. Hmmmm, I might have to write a post about this!)

So yes, my nest egg needed to be bigger than a person living in a lower-cost part of the country. But probably the salaries go hand in hand with cost of living. So it's all relative--which is why I never talk absolute dollars. It's all relative.

I don't envy you the 23 hours journey but your trip sounds wonderful so enjoy. Provided you have the time I do think that planning a trip is part of the fun and enjoyment of traveling and with home exchange there is often the need for more planning than for a traditional trip.

I flew out of Asia in the way back, far back, long ago. 36 hours, time lines, date lines,but the last thing you wanted to hear was,"we're flying to Vietnam":) Jet lag? may it pass quickly. It sounds like a true adventure. After 36 hours I reached the states and within 4 hours I was getting drunk in New Orleans. What the hell I was 22 nothing could stop me. Riddle me this batman is the planning a big part of your travel adventures? I have a aunt who travels by ships (for months) and we think that the planning is 50% of her experience.

fred: Yes, I've always thought that at least half the fun of a trip is the planning and anticipation. In fact, when I'm on trips like these (although I've NEVER been on one quite like this), there's a lot of work--to get there, to get from one place to another, even just to communicate. Which leads me to believe that another large percentage of the fun is when you're home looking back on the trip with fondness. I'm not sure what percentage that leaves for when you're actually there. I'll get back to you on that!

Cedy: Thank you. We used to book them way in advance, but now we have seen that more and more flights open up if you are willing to wait until it get closer. On this trip to Asia, we had our return flight for several months and kept waiting on the outbound flight so we could use saver awards (the one that takes fewer miles to get there.) Ultimately, we had to book a destination NEAR where we're going and will pay for a short flight to get us the rest of the way there. We do it all on-line.

But, we are still keeping our eyes open for that outbound flight opening up. If it does, we will pay the $100/ticket change fee, which will be cheaper than the flight we will have to pay for to get us to the final destination (we haven't purchased that one yet.)

My husband and I are retiring next year and after reading your suggestions we applied for and received a credit card to use to pay our monthly expenses and collect travel miles. However, we are having trouble understanding how to pay things that used to come out of checking account with a card. Can you elaborate?

Susan: You'll have to go on-line (or call) each vendor to set it up, like you did when you set up your ACH with them to take it out of your checking account. Just select a different payment method with them, usually you can just look in your account on-line and change it. Some places don't accept cards though--our gas and electric company is one of those. It takes a little bit of work setting it up for each of your bills, but then it will be automatic (and automatically earning you miles!)

Thanks so much for your speedy reply. In my research I have found bill paying agencies that will act as a go between, and accept a credit card. However they charge a fee. Your advice stated that it is NOT sensible to ever pay a fee, so we will only be able to work with those that accept the credit card directly. I also have read that airline miles may soon be a thing of the past......hope that's not true. Please keep us posted with any new info you may learn. Thanks for helping us keep the travel dream alive!